1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to improvements in expandable shelter systems which can house diverse kinds of equipment (e.g. electronics, medical instruments, etc) for transport on conventional cargo systems and carrier vehicles to remote locations for rapid deployment.
2. Brief Description of the State of Knowledge in the Art
Expandable ISO shelters for containing preconfigured electronic systems (e.g. command, control and communications C3 systems), as well as providing mobile field hospitals (i.e. medical treatment centers) are well known in the art.
Examples of such expandable shelter systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,988 to Molina; U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,032 to Gardner; U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,802 to Dewald, Jr. et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,578 to Behrmann; U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,094 to Clark; U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,518 to Fennes; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,107,116 to Meaker.
Examples of commercially available expandable shelters are offered by M. Schall GmbH & Co. KG, Germany, under the following product designation: Schall-Container-Systems Expandable SCS [1:2/1:3] for mobile command post applications, constructed according to ISO Standard or as a rolling-off container according to DIN 14505.
As described in its product brochures, the central part of the Expandable SCS is made of insulated and galvanized steel construction, and the expandable boxes are made from an insulated sandwich construction, with aluminum fittings. The heavy-weight version of the Expandable SCS is 9-times stackable, whereas the lightweight version of the unit is 4-times stackable. During its operating/deployment condition, the floors of the Expandable SCS are on the same level. The Expandable SCS is designed for various rapid and long-term applications, for operation on a carrier vehicle or on the ground. The expandable sections of the Expandable SCS are designed as closed boxes for an optimal overpressure tightness of the complete system. Due to its modular construction, he containers of the Expandable SCS can be adapted to the required application at hand and provided with doors, service cut outs, partition walls, etc. as required.
While the Expandable SCS offers many features and does suffer from a number of shortcomings and drawbacks.
In particular, the expandable sections of the Expandable SCS are realized as self-contained boxes with rigid flooring structures that nest within the central or main section of the Expandable SCS. In the single side expandable version of the SCS, the expandable box nests within the central section of the Expandable SCS. In the double side expandable version of the Expandable SCS, the expandable boxes nest within each other, and this sub-combination of boxes then nets within the central section of the Expandable SCS. Due to this prior art design, the Expandable SCS during its deployment/operating mode or condition, requires that the expandable boxes are automatically lowered to the same floor level as the central part (i.e. with no steps) using a leveling support system, which adds complexity and cost to the system design, and also provides an additional point of failure.
Furthermore, this prior art box nesting design of the expandable sections of the Expandable SCS prevents permanent mounting of equipment on the floor of the central section of the SCS during its transport mode. Consequently, equipment designated for installation on the floor of the central section of the Expandable SCS during the deployment mode, must be stored elsewhere within the central section of the Expandable SCS and then redeployed to the floor of the central station after the expandable section(s) have been moved to the deployment positions.
Another consequence of the prior art design employed by the Expandable SCS is that the expandable sections cannot be made to be substantially the same volume of the central section of the shelter system, maximizing on the expandability in volume of prior art shelter systems. This results in a non-optimal use of interior space with the expandable shelter system, and requires movement of (typically sensitive) equipment with the shelter system after deployment in the field, which is highly undesirable in demanding applications such as mobile C3 applications, and mobile field hospital applications.
Thus there is a great need in the art for an improved expandable shelter system that is free from the shortcomings and drawbacks of prior art shelter system designs.